Posts Tagged ‘Bitcoin XT’

One of the main things that has pushed the development of alternatives to the Bitcoin Core software is the ongoing debate about the blocksize and more specifically if and how it should evolve over time in order to cope up with the growing number of Bitcoin users and the increase of the number of transactions. So now apart from Bitcoin Core we also have Bitcoin Classic, Bitcoin Unlimited and Bitcoin XT as major alternatives and there are already quite a lot of nodes running a different software than the Core one. The website Node Counter allows you to easily keep track of the number of different nodes in the Bitcoin network and what version of the Bitcoin software they are running as well as how things are changing over time. Looking at the graphs we can clearly see that the support for 2MB or larger blocksize is growing, but still the number of Core nodes that are keeping the 1MB blocksize is a few times larger. Bitcoin Classic is getting significant increase in support and is currently with about 1/4 of the size of the number of Core nodes, followed by Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Unlimited that have been recently loosing support most likely in favor of the Classic implementation. If you are interested in how thing are developing you can keep track on Node Counter or another of the many new websites with similar goal that have popped up recently.

Blockchain, along with other big names in the Bitcoin industry have just released a public letter in support the implementation of BIP101 and larger Bitcoin blocks. Other companies that have signed the document include BitPay, Circle, Kncminer, Bitnet, Xapo and Bitgo and other companies are encouraged to join. Below is the document quoted and you can also find a link to the contents and signatures of the presidents and CEOs of the companies that have signed it:

Our community stands at a crossroads. The debate about which path to take has, by and large, been a healthy one, and we have not interposed our own positions or interfered in the discourse. Until today, our involvement has consisted of listening, researching and testing. We believe that work is complete, and it is time to communicate our view in a clear and transparent manner.

After lengthy conversations with core developers, miners, our own technical teams, and other industry participants, we believe it is imperative that we plan for success by raising the maximum block size.

We support the implementation of BIP101. We have found Gavin’s arguments on both the need for larger blocks and the feasibility of their implementation – while safeguarding Bitcoin’s decentralization – to be convincing. BIP101 and 8MB blocks are already supported by a majority of the miners and we feel it is time for the industry to unite behind this proposal.

Our companies will be ready for larger blocks by December 2015 and we will run code that supports this.

As our community grows, it is essential – now more than ever that we seek strong consensus to ensure network reliability. We pledge to support BIP101 in our software and systems by December 2015, and we encourage others to join us.

Note that the companies that have signed the letter are pledging that they will be ready for larger blocks by December 2015. Some of the large Bitcoin mining pools have already implemented support for larger Bitcoin blocks, but there is still no consensus among all players in the Bitcoin ecosystem about the matter. We too believe that Bitcoin needs to start using larger blocks in the future in order to be able to scale up with the increased usage, but as to how this should be implement is a different story however.

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